Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

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Wow. Brilliant. And how different it looks today. The only other building I can see that still remains is the building on the north exit from the square (just before the park) with the columns and stairs in front.

There is one building left standing around the perimeter of Monument Circle from the time of this photograph, but it is practically invisible: Christ Church Cathedral, built in 1857 (according to the mavens at Wikipedia), lies hidden behind the Monument at the northeast corner of Monument Circle and Meridian Street. Other than that, the only surviving building in the photograph appears to be the US Courthouse (1902-1905), a small sliver of which may be seen set back from Meridian Street behind a balustrade, two blocks north of the Monument.

A totally unexpected and beautiful view of a Midwestern US city. While many places like this still exist in Europe, it appears that everything here except the monument itself has been wiped away. We can't even blame it on war.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo archive featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1960s. (Available as fine-art prints from the Shorpy Archive.) The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.